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Hello, I have a guest who just sent me a message as follows:
I was wondering if I can make the reservation on my uncle’s account because I didnt known he had one until today. Do you mind If we do the transaction on his name ?
This guest has his own account with 2 verifications. I don’t know why he wants to use his uncle’s account. I am a brand new host, and also don’t know what the pitfalls of allowing this would be. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
What verification does he have? Sounds a bit odd to me.
Just an e mail and phone number.
His uncle’s account (he’s already sent a reservation request using uncle’s account) has 5 verifications and 32 reviews as a host.
Among other things it’s a violation of ABB’s terms of service. Just decline.
Well there are things to consider. I will only take bookings from the account holder. It gives me reassurance as I only take those who are already verified and who have prior reviews. Also, if someone cancels at short notice and they have booked via someone else’s account I assume you would still get paid or could the account holder say they never knew the booking had been made?
Okay, he wants to use his uncle’s acct. simply to use a 30 rebate his uncle has. That sounds legit. But I called Air and they told me not to do a third party booking.
Theres your answer 
Thank you for the responses. I am very glad to have found this knowledgeable and kind community!
I politely declined and told him he was welcome to book using his own account.
Is the Uncle staying as well?? If so I dont see what the issue is
The uncle was not staying. Guest wanted to use his uncle’s account because there was some Airbnb coupon worth $30 attached to it that he wanted to be able to use. He didn’t have the discount thing on his own account.
I lost the booking over it. And I’m pretty sure it was because my refusal to do the third party booking left a bad taste in the guest’s mouth.
Better to say no that taking a risk
@Chloe, you didn’t lose a booking, you lost the risk of breaking ABB’s TOS. If he used his uncle’s account, and damaged something, you would not have been able to make a claim against his security deposit.
No, no and no, it’s completely against the TOS he needs his own account and he should verify himself.
I had this a few times when i first started. I had a horror story of a completely different guest turn up with a kid. ( i didnt accept kids). Air are very strict now. I would not accept a third party booking now either.
For a start it wont be their own profile picture on it or bank details, so you would have no come back if anything happened.
At least they were forward about this. Some people would have just done it without asking.
We had a serious horror story where Airbnb verified a guy using s phoney name and he then paid with somebody else’s (we think his father’s) credit card and he was in fact an undischarged bankrupt. Refused to leave at end of booking and we brought an action in county court and he got violent and was arrested so the police got him out. Airbnb covered our loss (cleaning, change locks, stolen stuff) and we are grateful. Recently I told a prospective holidaymaker with only email & phone verification he’d need to verify more and he did, and made a 1-month booking. That makes 3 one-month bookings by university lecturers, they tend to be good and of course it amortises the cleaning costs nicely.